The Godz began as a mid-70’s hard-rock band from Columbus, Ohio; arguably the most popular band in town. The Godz were very much descendents of their late-60’s Midwest brethren The MC5 - except where The MC5 preached a religion based on pot & LSD, violent revolution, and fucking in the streets, The Godz harkened more towards a credo of qualludes, biker values, and - well - fucking in the streets. (Some things about rock & roll never change.)
In early 1978 I was in a band called Ricki & The West Side Rockers that nobody on the West Side of Columbus, Ohio liked because we were more influenced by The Dictators and The Clash than we were The Allman Brothers Band, Pink Floyd and/or Led Zeppelin; the Holy Triumvirate of Lunkhead Rock favored by rock & roll fans around those parts.
You couldn’t make any money playing original songs back then (or nowadays either in these “tribute band” glutted times), so I had a day-job in the warehouse of the K-Mart Store on West Broad Street by the Westland Mall. (Both of those retail outlets are long-defunct, but now the West Side has the Hollywood Casino!)
One day I was out on the sales floor when Eric Moore of The Godz came into the store. I knew Eric from talking to him at Black Leather Touch shows, the West Side band that got all the gigs I wanted for my band. (aside; Black Leather Touch featured Jerry & Gary Blinn, dad & uncle of next-generation rocker Erica Blinn.) BLT was kinda the “little bother band” of The Godz, and opened a lot of their shows around Ohio back then. And make no mistake, those were coveted gigs. The Godz were the biggest thing going on the local Columbus scene at that time; they could sell out the 1300-capacity Columbus Agora whenever they felt like it, before they even had a record deal. Now The Godz first album had come out and they were HUGE in the Midwest.
I said hi to Eric and as we were shooting the bull I noticed our store Plainclothes Security Guy giving us the eye. And make no mistake; at 2 in the afternoon the seriously-in-need-of-a-shave, hair-down-to-his-waist, biker-gear-clad Eric Moore kinda stood out from K-Mart’s usual middle-of-the-day clientele of Teen Moms and blue-haired Little Old Ladies doing their weekly discount-store shopping.
After Eric walked away (following one of those obligatory ridiculously-complicated-rocker/soul-handshakes I never could get right) middle-aged Security-Guy came up to me and said, incredulously, “DO YOU KNOW THAT GUY??!!!??” “Yeah,” I replied quietly, trying to calm him down, “that’s Eric Moore of The Godz, he’s in the most popular band in Columbus.”
“All right, I guess that’s cool, as long as you can vouch for him,” said Security-Guy, calming down a little. “Yeah, he’s cool,” I agreed.
“Okay,” Security-Guy continued, “I won’t watch him, but if he steals anything, you’re responsible.” I immediately cut in, “OH, HE’S GONNA STEAL STUFF. I GUARANTEE you he’s gonna steal stuff. You have GOT to watch him. NO WAY am I responsible for Eric Moore.”
Eric shoplifted two shirts, some jeans, and a pair of biker gloves that day, and when Security-Guy stopped him at the door Eric calmly pulled back his black leather jacket to show him a Smith & Wesson 38 Special, and walked on out the door.
I loved rock & roll in 1978.
THE GODZ IN 1978 - left to right MARK CHATFIELD, GLEN CATALINE, ERIC MOORE, BOB HILL (with some pert young ladies).
MY FAVORITE GODZ SONG
RICKI C. IN 1978
Ricki C. is 73 years old and has two dresser drawers full of black rock & roll t-shirts, which he wears incessantly. He also has a hand-tooled leather hippie belt from 1972 that still fits. He has congestive heart failure, a defibrillator and prostate cancer and KNOWS that all this rock & roll nonsense has to stop someday.
But not yet.